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DISAPPEARANCE
by
Alexander Elliott Miller
______________________________________________________
A Musical Score Presented to the
FACULTY OF THE USC THORNTON SCHOOL OF MUSIC
UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA
In Partial Fulfillment of the
Requirements for the Degree
DOCTOR OF MUSICAL ARTS
(COMPOSTION)
December 2010
Copyright 2010 Alexander Elliott Miller

"Disappearance" is a musical score for four percussionists, in four movements. Each movement explores a different type of "disappearing": any sort of musical process that will gradually lead the music to terminate at a cadence. Each movement has a subtitle to illustrate its own process.; In Movement 1, "Vanishing Point" all four percussionists begin by playing a similar melody out of synchronization, at distantly independent points in time. Gradually, over four minutes of music, these melodies come into synchronization. The music becomes quieter and the range of pitches becomes limited, and by the end, all four instruments are playing the melody in unison, and quietly hit the final distant pitch, representing a vanishing point.; Movement 2 is titled "Evaporation." The music begins with ringing, resonant, bell-like sounds ("wet" sounds) and gradually changes over the course of four minutes to non-resonant, staccato sounds ("dry" sounds), ending with a quiet, bone-dry muted marimba.; Movement 3 is titled "A Face Lost in the Crowd." This movement involves a conflict between one single pitched percussion instrument, the Glockenspiel, against a "crowd" of only non-pitched instruments or semi non-pitched bell-like instruments such as Singing Bowls and Brake Drums. The music begins with the solo Glockenspiel playing a recognizable melody (the "face"), which is gradually buried and imitated by the other instruments. This continues until the Glockenspiel is discarded, replaced with three gongs. The sound of these gongs resembles the sounds of the "crowd" instruments more than the Glockenspiel, but nonetheless, these gongs perform the melody from the opening - the face's individuality lost.; Movement 4 is performed in the dark with small lights illuminating the performer's music stands. The title is "Vanishings in the Night" and quietly closes the piece by hinting at ominous feelings of abduction. This is the longest movement, and a piece which returns to many of the harmonies of the opening movement, "Vanishing Point." The ending is the most abrupt of all the movements, involving not a gradual process, but a sudden terminating effect. Towards the end, each musician, one at a time but at unpredictable moments, stops playing music and turns of his stand light, standing quietly in the dark. Quartet becomes trio, trio becomes duet, duet becomes solo, solo finally gives way to dark silence.

DISAPPEARANCE
by
Alexander Elliott Miller
______________________________________________________
A Musical Score Presented to the
FACULTY OF THE USC THORNTON SCHOOL OF MUSIC
UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA
In Partial Fulfillment of the
Requirements for the Degree
DOCTOR OF MUSICAL ARTS
(COMPOSTION)
December 2010
Copyright 2010 Alexander Elliott Miller